Baldovino M Celia, Di Bitetti Mario S
Asociación Civil Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico, Puerto Iguazú, Argentina.
Folia Primatol (Basel). 2008;79(2):79-92. doi: 10.1159/000108780. Epub 2007 Sep 21.
Allonursing, the behaviour of females nursing offspring that are not their own, is relatively frequent in capuchin monkeys. Using focal-animal sampling and ad libitum observations we describe the pattern of allonursing in a wild group of tufted capuchins, Cebus nigritus (4 cohorts, 22 infants), at Iguazú National Park, north-eastern Argentina, and test several hypotheses on the adaptive value of allonursing. During 2,351 contact hours with the group (including 4,207 focal-animal samples totalizing 329 h focused on infants) we observed 39 allonursing bouts. Infants were not allonursed more frequently by close kin than by more distant allomothers. Offspring of dominant females were allonursed more frequently than those of low-ranking females. Nursing bouts were longer than allonursing bouts. Our results suggest that allonursing in tufted capuchins has a social function and is not mainly aimed at providing milk to infants.
代乳行为，即雌性照顾非自己亲生后代的行为，在卷尾猴中较为常见。我们采用焦点动物取样法和随意观察法，描述了阿根廷东北部伊瓜苏国家公园一群野生簇绒卷尾猴（Cebus nigritus，4个群组，22只幼崽）的代乳模式，并对代乳行为的适应性价值的几种假设进行了检验。在与该群组接触的2351小时内（包括4207个焦点动物样本，总计329小时聚焦于幼崽），我们观察到39次代乳行为。幼崽被近亲代乳的频率并不比远亲代母更高。优势雌性的后代比低等级雌性的后代被代乳的频率更高。哺乳行为的时间比代乳行为更长。我们的研究结果表明，簇绒卷尾猴的代乳行为具有社会功能，并非主要为幼崽提供乳汁。
